Conventional tactile feedback in messaging systems is determined by the settings on a message recipient's messaging device, which may associate different types of messages with particular vibrations. These vibrations may be generic, and/or based on a prepackaged library of vibration effects included with the messaging device. Such vibrations are not authored by the user, and thus may not be considered personal to the sender or recipient of the message. Furthermore, such vibrations are not generated by the properties of the message contents. Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods for mapping message contents to virtual physical properties for vibrotactile messaging.